Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I just bought my first Cali Kingsnake yesterday. I thawed the pinkie and left it by his side all night and he doesn't wanna eat it. =( Instead he just throws it in the dirt and it basically almost got buried. LOL
Is there anything I can do to make him eat. I wanna make sure he doesn't starve to death =(.
I know he's a couple of months old and petland told me that he hasn't eatten/been fed since he came from the warehouse and god knows how long ago that was.
Also, this maybe a stupid question but does the pinkie go bad after leaving it out a day or two or (from the eatting rate he's going), maybe more?
I don't want it to go bad and when my snake finally eats it, he'll get sick.

Pls Advise. Thanks in advance.
Cel

First and foremost any thing you thaw out to feed your snake DOES go bad. I would discard it after a few hours. You dont want to take a chance of getting your new snake sick. He may not be accepting it for a number of reasons. It could be freezer burnt, he could be used to eating live prey, he may not even be hungry. How are you thawing it out? Are you giving it to him cold. My snakes all eat live prey. Alot of poeple don't like to feed live because of the risk of injury to the snake, but I like my snakes to keep thier natural instinct to catch thier pray. I would recommend you try feeding it live pinkies until you get it eating on a regular basis. Most snakes are easily converted from live to frozen. The important thing for now is to get it eating. If you donn't want to feed it live prey try getting your frozen from another source. The place your getting them from now may be old. Hope this helps. -Chris-

yes, very helpful, gave me some ideas. Thank you.
I bought the pinkies from petland and thawed it just by leaving it out. This is because I was told that if i leave it in water, it loses the flavor. I made sure the pinkie wasn't cold because I heard there was a chance the snake will get sick. I already threw the pinkie away.
I spoke with petland (the guy who i bought it from who owns snakes himself) and he told me that it's because the snake is too young and give it 1 month.....hmmmm they can go w/o eatting for 1 month? didn't think that was possible.